How To Process – Hidden Emotions

Did you know that everyone has emotions that are hidden, that are not even felt? It’s true. We have emotions that are hidden within our subconscious minds that have been stored sometimes for many years waiting to be felt. I kind of visualize it like a little box somewhere in our psyches that has a padlock on it. When we have an experience, especially when we are young, that upsets us yet for whatever reason doesn’t feel safe or OK to feel or express then we lock it into this little box. These unexpressed emotions can remain unrecognized and unexpressed for years. Whey does this happen? When an experience is too painful or too scary to acknowledge and express we tend to deny the emotions. For example, a child who looks up to an angry parent may hide his emotions from himself because to acknowledge them may place him in psychological danger. A child cannot afford to be angry at an angry parent so it is safer to deny the emotions. In Processing these hidden emotions can be revealed and expressed. Doing so frees us from the pull that unacknowledged and unexpressed emotions have on our well-being. Unacknowledged emotions often keep trapped a self-defeating core belief.  Expressing the long lost emotion frees the core belief to mature and allows us to experience the present in a more peaceful and helpful way.